Measure Reach
Measuring your reach, or arm span, is as simple as measuring the length between your fingertips, with your arms outstretched. Extra reach is useful in activities such as rock climbing, boxing, swimming and basketball. A long reach is also considered part of a ballerina's conventional look. Although you could theoretically manage measuring your own reach, asking a friend for help will give you a much easier, more accurate measurement.
Contents
Steps
Measure Your Reach
- Stand upright with your back as close as possible to a wall.
- Reach is conventionally measured with your back to the wall, but if this causes you difficulty you can always turn around and stand with your toes and the front of your torso against the wall.
- Spread both arms straight out, palms facing away from the wall, fingers together.
- To get an accurate measurement, your arms must be completely horizontal.
- Scoot to 1 side or the other so the tips of the fingers of 1 hand are against a corner or other obvious mark.
- Have your friend mark where the tips of your fingers on both hands fall.
- Step away from the wall and help your friend measure straight from the mark for 1 hand to the mark for the other hand. The resulting number is your reach.
Interpret Reach Measurements
- Measure your height. Stand in your stocking feet with your back flat against a wall.
- Ask your friend to make a mark on the wall, level with the top of your head.
- Step away from the wall and help your friend measure straight up from the floor to the mark, to get your height.
- Make sure you use the same units of measurement (feet, inches, centimeters or meters) that you used to measure your reach.
- Divide your reach measurement by your height to express your arm span as a ratio. If the result is greater than 1 your reach is longer than your height, which is also known as having a positive ape index.
- Subtract your height measurement from your reach measurement to get a more concrete "ape index" result.
- If the result is positive, your reach is longer than your height. This is usually expressed as a positive ape index, or a +1, +2, or so on ape index, with the number expressing the number of units your reach is longer than your height. (So a person with a +1 ape index might have a reach that is {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} longer than his height.
- A "negative ape index" is expressed similarly, but with a minus or negative sign instead of the plus.
Tips
- Although having a long reach is beneficial in some sports, reach is not the ultimate determiner in performance. Your skill, determination, focus and superior technique can make up for a short reach in sports where reach matters.
Things You'll Need
- Pencil
- Measuring tape
